


Dawn

by Rainah (RainahFiclets)



Category: Spartacus Series (TV), Spartacus: War of the Damned
Genre: Angst, F/M, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainahFiclets/pseuds/Rainah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been a long time since Gannicus has believed in the gods. But hope has a way of sneaking up on you in the strangest ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dawn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RebelGeneral](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelGeneral/gifts).



> For RebelGeneral - Oaxara and I are kind of a package deal so you get two for one. We know you asked for fic, so I wrote a little something in the time I had after writing my prompt. Hope you enjoy.
> 
> Researching pre-roman Celtic gods was an ordeal.

It had been a long time since Gannicus has believed in the gods. In the north, far beyond the reach of Rome, they speak of different deities, a place where the very earth itself was alive with the gods. And Brigantia the dawn, herald of victory, greeted them every morning with a new possibility.

He'd thought Brigantia dead when they took him, bloody but still young and bright eyed, to be sold as a Roman slave. Said his goodbyes. He found different gods of victory: ones of sand and cheering crowds, of wine and blessed oblivion, of the soft words of a friend. But he has lost those too, and now he wonders if Brigantia has found him of her own accord.

She is beautiful, not much older than he had been when he had washed up on Roman shores. One of many freed when they take Sinuessa. Had she been less persistent, he would have ignored her. Had she been older, he would have lay with her and then ignored her. At it was all he could do was try and avoid her. Sibyl, with her dark hair and knowing eyes, earnest in a way he had not seen in many, many years.

Gannicus could only run so long. From the gods, and from her. And he was terrified of her, terrified to hold something so precious in his hands and keep it whole. He told her as much one day, walking quickly through the market of Sinuessa to find Spartacus.

"Your hands saw me free," She runs beside him as she always does, slender legs and graceful as a deer. "I do not believe they could ever do me harm."

"As long as I give you no wine to drink," Gannicus was not in the mood for reassurance. "Nor whisper to you of rebellion." He saw Melitta's eyes everywhere, and saw the blood drip from Marcia's cross. The things he had done to women who did not know better. He should tell her those tales, make her see, but he can't so much as say their names. All he can repeat is, "Stay _far away_ from my kind." 

It's not often Gannicus feels like a coward.

"I am not unfamiliar with the world," she insists. "Nor defenseless child-"

"You are a thing I would not see broken," he tells her, and it is enough for now. Her cheeks flood with colour and she lets him go. It's true. If he can save one thing, do just _one thing_ right, perhaps he can die a good man. Perhaps Melitta will forgive him in the afterlife. 

It is only after the Romans take back Sinuessa that he begins to think that safety for Sibyl may not mean sending her far away. He looks at her, terrified and trembling but trying to steel herself, and to the bodies of his comrades that will never see the dawn again. A righteous fury fills him. He can save her. He can make this difference.

Yet it is more than that. They found each other in the heart-stopping darkness of the trap beneath the stables. He sees a strength in her he didn't know was possible. It's touched by kindness, by reverence, by an inner peace that is utterly foreign to him.

It's intoxicating.

"I begin to think gods have blessed us after all," he gasps into her mouth, in the snow covered mountains past the ridge. It was only moments before Spartacus orders them to march into the warm marches below the ridges, but he would take this moment where he can.

"And what of your gods?" She can still surprise him. "You had them, once."

"Once," he agreed. "We worshiped trees and skies, the beautiful dawn." One day he'll tell her everything. Before the war is through. He will tell her of Brigantia the dawn, and how he thought her lost forever.

"Once. And now?"

"The dawn found me," he tells her, and pulls her in for once last kiss before they march.


End file.
